Shafaq News/ The U.S. dollar (USD) exchange rates against the Iraqi dinar (IQD) registered a huge decline in the markets of Baghdad on Saturday.
Shafaq News Agency correspondent said that the Central al-Kifah and Al-Harithiya exchanges are trading the USD at a rate of 146,500 IQD to 100, eye-popping 1400 IQD below Thursday.
Our correspondent said that the buying and selling rates of 100 USD in the local markets of the Iraqi capital stood at 147,000 and 146,000 IQD, respectively.
On Thursday, the Iraqi Parliament Presidium summoned Minister of Finance, Ali Abdul-Amir Allawi, and the Governor of Iraq's Central Bank, Mustafa Ghaleb Makhif, to appear before it for questioning.
The decision was taken in response to recommendations made by the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, a statement of the Parliament's Presidium said.
Al-Sadr on Thursday cracked a list of recommendations he believes it might contribute to leaching the valotile exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the Iraqi dinar.
The hand-written list shared by the firebrand Shiite cleric included summoning the minister of finance and the governor of the Central Bank of Iraq "Immediately".
Al-Sadr called for halting currency smuggling by force, organizing and centralizing the currency market, and enacting laws that boost the national currency.
The Sadrist leader called for scrutinizing the activity of some banks that belong to "persons controlling the currency like al-Sharq al-Awsat (the Middle East), al-Qabedh, and al-Ansari, and other private banks," and "dealing firmly with the banks affiliated with some political parties controlling the people and the land."
Earlier on Wednesday, al-Sadr said in a tweet that the Iraqi citizens shall not be burdened by the downsides of the dinar devaluation, calling on the Iraqi government to take firm steps to curb the rise of prices.
"Raising the exchange rate of the dollar, regardless of its upsides and downsides, shall not bring the prices of the commodities, particularly the basic ones, higher," al-Sadr tweeted.
Al-Sadr called for holding the traders who tamper with the prices of the goods accountable, "particularly, with the holy month of Ramadan around the corner."
